"Overall, it was a good weekend for us," said LHS head coach Chris Entwistle. "We saw a few pieces of the puzzle that were missing. There were times where we looked good and had some moments where we were out of sorts. Some teams had the luxury of playing a week earlier and we were trying to figure out some things." The Lady Bucks (1-1-1) had little trouble with Dayton, as Monique Rodriguez scored twice and added an assist in the victory. Lowry scored twice in each half, and was as strong defensively, allowing just three shots on goal. Savannah Ingram posted a shutout, stopping all three shots.
"I think we probably had about 80 percent of the possession," Entwistle said. "The girls looked really good out there and I was amazed with our senior leadership." Senior Rikki Hamilton stood out defensively, with four steals, as did freshman Caitlynn Cooper.
"Rikki had a stellar game for us and she played strong," said the coach. "Rikki expects a lot out of herself and is harder on herself than I will ever be. Caitlynn stepped up and filled the shoes of (Ashley) Lombardi better than I can imagine." In addition, Entwistle praised the play of Martha Vizcarra, who is playing with a torn ACL.
"She got permission to play and doctor approval but the ACL is partially torn," Entwistle said. "She went out there and played. She is one of those kids you cannot keep off the field. We watched her in warm ups to make sure she was OK." Megan Lombardi and Maddie Mitch combined for the two other goals for the Lady Bucks. Mitch also had an assist.
"I have never seen Maddie play so well in her life," Entwistle said. "She showed a lot of poise all weekend. We put Megan in there and she scored right away. We were able to get all our subs in and brought a couple of girls up from the JV team and let them play. It was nice to get a win over Dayton. They have been a nemesis to the girls in the past." Last year Lowry and Churchill County played to two ties and the first meeting this season was no different. The Lady Bucks scored an early goal on a shot by Rodriguez to take a 1-0 advantage.
"We were dressed and on the bus at 7 a.m.," said the coach. "The girls were a little tired. I don't know if it was because we had a game the day before or they stayed up too late. They are a self-driven team, so I don't have to give them long, drawn-out speeches." The Lady Bucks scored within the first five minutes of the match, but according to the coach, the girls hit a lull for about 20 minutes in the first half.
"We got off to a great start and then for about 15 to 20 minutes, we just looked atrocious," said the coach. "We just looked flat on the entire field. Fallon had one girl that was just killing us and I could not figure it out. After halftime, I found out that our defensive halfbacks were dropping back too far, instead of filling the middle and our outside halfbacks were coming back far enough. As soon as we did that we shut them down." Lowry looked to have scored the go-ahead goal in the second half, but Rodriguez's shot was not counted due to being offside.
The Lady Bucks finished up the weekend against South Tahoe, the Division I-A state runner-up from last year. The Vikings scored two goals in each half to pick up the shutout win. "We played a great team and South Tahoe showed us the level that we want to be at," Entwistle said. "They looked like a next level team. They controlled possession, they controlled shots and Savannah kept us in the game in the goal."
Lowry travels to Truckee today and Saturday for three Mount Rose crossover matches. The Lady Bucks play Sparks and Truckee today at 11 a.m., and 5 p.m., respectively. Lowry meets South Tahoe on Saturday at 11 a.m. "Hopefully this week we can come out and get a little better result," Entwistle said. "As long as we show improvement, I will be happy with that. Sparks is a game we have to win, and I hope we can be competitive with Truckee and South Tahoe." [[In-content Ad]]